Brisbane City Council’s More Homes, Sooner amendment has had a lot of coverage this year, most of it along the lines of thousands of new homes being unlocked across the city.
The detail that gets left out is more useful than the headline. Most of the changes are not in effect yet, and the zone they apply to covers a small share of Brisbane’s residential land.
If you own a house in Brisbane and you have read that minimum lot sizes are dropping to 120m2, the honest answer is that this may have nothing to do with your property. It is worth ten minutes to find out which side of that line you are on.
This piece sets out what the amendment actually proposes, then gives you three checks you can run on your own address today.
What the amendment covers
More Homes, Sooner is a review of the Low-medium density residential zone in Brisbane City Plan 2014, and it is one of the more significant changes to hit town planning in Brisbane in recent years. It was split into two amendment packages.
The first deals with car parking for multiple dwellings. That one has been adopted and is already in City Plan.
The second, the Low-medium density residential design amendment, is the one carrying the lot size and building height changes. Community consultation ran from 20 February to 20 March 2026. Council has since published its consultation report, and the amendment goes to the Queensland Government for final review before adoption. Council’s published timeline anticipates adoption mid to late 2026.
In other words, the parking changes apply now. The lot size and height changes do not, and will not until the amendment is adopted and takes effect in City Plan.
What is proposed
There are four moving parts worth understanding.
The precincts are being simplified. The existing 2 or 3 storey mix precinct and the Up to 3 storeys precinct are proposed to combine into a single 3 or 4 storey mix precinct. Rather than the precinct alone setting the outcome, the intended built form then depends on how well served the site is.
Key Locations become the deciding factor. Council’s fact sheet defines a Key Location as land within the Principal centre, Major centre, District centre or Mixed use zone, or land within 400 metres walking distance of a dedicated public pedestrian access point of a major public transport interchange, a public transport stop serviced at a minimum frequency of 20 minutes between 7am and 7pm on weekdays and 30 minutes between 7am and 7pm on weekends, or a Principal centre, Major centre, District centre or Mixed use zone. Note that it is a two limb test. Being in one of those centre or mixed use zones qualifies on its own, without any distance measurement.
Inside a Key Location, the intent is apartments. Multiple dwellings would be able to reach 4 storeys and 14m, on a minimum lot size of 800m2. The same height is proposed to extend to retirement facilities and residential care facilities in the zone. That is the scale where a project stops being a house and starts being a multi-unit residential development, with the assessment path to match.
Outside a Key Location, the intent is small lot housing. Building height up to 3 storeys and 11.5m, a minimum lot size of 120m2 where design and built form criteria are met, down from the current 260m2, and a minimum of 400m2 for dual occupancies. Supporting controls include total site cover of 55% for lots under 180m2, a maximum impervious area of 70%, narrower driveway crossovers to preserve street trees and kerbside parking, and setback and built to boundary changes intended to allow terrace style housing.
There is one more change, and it is the one most Brisbane homeowners should be reading for. It sits outside the LMR zone entirely.
In the Low density residential zone, properties can currently be subdivided into 300m2 lots if they are within 200 metres walking distance of a shopping centre. The amendment proposes to extend that to 300 metres walking distance. If that lands on your block, it is a straightforward subdivision in Brisbane question rather than a redevelopment one.
That is a modest sounding change to a single number. It also applies in the Low density residential zone rather than the LMR zone, which means it reaches a far larger share of Brisbane’s detached housing stock than everything above it.
Check one: your zone and precinct, not your suburb
Council’s fact sheet maps LMR pockets across Bracken Ridge, Chermside, Nundah, Everton Park, Wynnum, Morningside, Toowong, St Lucia, Mount Gravatt, Oxley, Bellbowrie and Forest Lake, among others. Those suburb names then travelled through property media and social feeds, and a lot of owners in those suburbs now assume the changes apply to them.
Only parts of those suburbs are in the Low-medium density residential zone. The zone tends to follow corridors and pockets near centres and transport, not whole suburbs, and the boundary can run down the middle of a street.
Open City Plan online, search your address, and generate a property report. You are looking for two things: the zone, and the zone precinct. If it returns Low density residential, the LMR changes above do not apply to you at all, and the only part of this amendment that matters to you is the 300 metre subdivision change.
Do this before anything else. It sorts you into one of two completely different conversations. It is also the first step in any due diligence and feasibility assessment we run before a client commits to a site.
Check two: walking distance, not radius
Both the 300 metre subdivision test and the 400 metre Key Location test are measured as walking distance. That is not the same as drawing a circle on a map.
Take a house 260 metres from a shopping centre in a straight line, on a street that ends in a cul de sac backing onto the centre. The actual walking route out to the main road and back around can easily run 500 metres or more. The straight line says yes. The walking route says no.
Creeks, rail corridors, parkland without a formed path, and arterial roads without a crossing point all produce the same result. So do battle axe lots and blocks that back onto a school or a golf course.
Measure the route someone would actually walk, along formed paths and legal crossings. If you land within about 50 metres of the threshold either way, treat it as unresolved rather than decided, and confirm the measurement method with Council or a planner before you rely on it. That margin is where most self assessments go wrong.
Check three: permission is not feasibility
Say your lot is in the zone, you are outside a Key Location, and the walking distance test works. You still do not have a 120m2 lot.
The 120m2 minimum is conditional. Council’s amendment states it applies where design and built form criteria are met, and that this is assessed at the subdivision stage. That means the number is an outcome you have to demonstrate, not an entitlement you can rely on when you buy.
Then there are the controls that decide whether anything workable fits. Site cover is capped at 55% on lots under 180m2, specifically so there is usable private open space left over. Impervious area is capped at 70%. Driveway crossovers are narrower. Setbacks and built to boundary provisions are being reworked for terrace style outcomes, which suits some site orientations and works against others.
On top of that sit the overlays already applying to your lot, which this amendment does not change. Traditional building character, pre-1911 building overlay, flood, overland flow, biodiversity, traffic noise, and heritage all continue to do exactly what they did before. A character overlay in particular can make a nominally compliant small lot subdivision unviable, and dealing with one is its own process. See our note on character approvals if that overlay shows up on your property report.
The practical order is: confirm the zone, measure the walking route, then test whether a real layout fits the site with its overlays and its contours. The third step is the one that produces an answer you can act on, and it is the cheapest step to get wrong. A pre-lodgement package is usually the fastest way to get it tested properly, since it puts a site plan and Council’s own view in front of you before you spend real money.
What is in force today
To be clear about timing, because it matters if you are signing a contract:
The car parking amendment for multiple dwellings has been adopted and applies now.
The lot size, building height, precinct and Low density residential subdivision changes are proposed. They were consulted on in early 2026, the consultation report is published, and Council anticipates adoption mid to late 2026. Until the amendment takes effect, the current City Plan provisions apply to any application you lodge.
If you are buying a site on the strength of the proposed provisions, you are carrying timing risk as well as assessment risk. That is a reasonable position to take with your eyes open. It is a poor position to take by accident.
Where to start
If you want a straight answer on a specific address, the sequence is short. Pull the property report from City Plan online. Measure the walking route rather than the radius. Then get the site tested against a real layout before you commit to anything. Our DA ready packages bundle the planning, survey and design work for that last step under one banner.
We offer free initial planning advice, including to designers and architects working on Brisbane sites. If you have an address you are unsure about, send it through and we will tell you which of the two conversations you are in.
This article is general information current at August 2026 and is not planning advice for a specific site. Proposed amendments change through the adoption process, so confirm current provisions in City Plan online or with Brisbane City Council before acting.
